


There Is Someone Waiting For You

by princecaviar



Series: No One is Fine (And That's Okay) [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Abusive Filbrick Pines, Child Abuse, Filbrick Pines Is A Jerk, Gen, It's only mentioned passingly but I figure I should tag it anyway, Memory Loss, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 13:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19992655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princecaviar/pseuds/princecaviar
Summary: Stan talks to Fiddleford sometimes. He's still not entirely okay (and sometimes Stan wonders if either of them ever will be.)





	There Is Someone Waiting For You

Sometimes Stan can’t remember things right away. It’s mostly little things- Mabel’s middle name, where exactly the laundry room is, whether or not he’s already paid Wendy for the week. But one time he forgot his own name until Dipper said it, and another time he spent half an hour trying to remember who Soos was. (He never said a word about it either time, just struggled along by himself. Big or small, every slip of his memory haunted him at night.)

Sometimes he climbs up on the roof and remembers his childhood in New Jersey, wreaking havoc on the boardwalk with Ford, finding their little hideout on the beach. They would sneak out their window on bad days. (Days when their dad hit them and fought with their mom, when too many people made fun of Ford that day, when their dad did nothing but drink and yell at every little sound.) They’d climb down the rusty fire escape that they both knew would collapse one day and run to the beach. They tucked themselves in their little sea cave and counted the stars from the entrance until they could breathe again.

Other days he talks to Fiddleford. He’s not entirely okay (and sometimes Stan wonders if either of them ever will be) but he’s leagues better than he was before, and he’s handling it all better than Stan, so sometimes on bad days they talk. Fiddleford says that keeping notes helps, and even if he feels weird about writing things down for himself, Stan does it anyway. (It does help, for both the little things and the big things. He can reference the notebook if he needs to, but he finds himself needing to less and less.)

When summer rolls around again and the twins show back up with dark circles under their eyes and tired smiles, Stan doesn’t comment, just hugs them tight and welcomes them back. (He cries as he hugs them, but everyone else is crying too, so it’s fine.) The next morning he finds the pair of them and Ford already awake. He doesn’t say anything, but later that day he stops by the store and picks up sleeping pills. (He leaves them on the counter that night and doesn’t mention it when he sees that someone opened them already.)

Sometimes when he sits out on the roof, he’ll find someone else there. (Sometimes it’s Ford, and they count the stars together.) Other times, someone joins him. (It seems to be a rare occurrence now for Stanley to sit up there by himself.)

Three days into July, Dipper and Mabel sit him and Ford down and talk about their nightmares. They explain (with shakey words, holding each other’s hand as tight as possible) that they didn’t stop until they got back to Gravity Falls, and that they haven’t stopped entirely, it’s still so much better than before, and they’re not sure they can live anywhere else anymore. (Stan understands. He thought about it once or twice after Ford got back. The idea of leaving Gravity Falls always left a sour taste in his mouth. He’s spent thirty years of his life here, he’s not about to leave now.) The four of them talk for a long while, but agreements are reached and phone calls are made, and the kid’s things are being sent up from Piedmont. (He’ll never admit it to anyone besides Ford, but having the kids around permanently helps. They’re anchor points for him.)

Stan knows that it’s possible he might never remember what his father looked like, or how to get to Glass Shard from Gravity Falls (not that he wants to remember either), but in the end, he doesn’t think it matters much. He has his tiny, patchwork family, and that’s what’s most important.


End file.
